For Ahli lovers to the core, the football team now has its own store. Dena Rashed checks out the first local souvenir shop of its kind In the midst of one of Zamalek's posh streets, a red shop sign flashes in the darkness, revealing the first football fan shop to open in the country, this one belonging to Ahli. For many years, wearing a red T-shirt at an Ahli match was considered one of the best ways to relate to the team. Yet, looking back at last year's African Cup, Egyptians fans in general started cheering in a new way, creating hats with the Egyptian flags and painting their faces in the flag's black, white and red colours. As people of all ages and sexes flocked to the stadium, it showed that fans were ready to embark on new trends for cheering on their team. However, the 'ahlawy 100 per cent' store has managed to take the idea of affiliation to a club to a higher level. Targeting the A and B classes, the store displays a collection of T-shirts, caps, mugs, notebooks, posters and many other items, all promising fidelity to Ahli. With Ahli being the African club of the century, and the winner of the domestic and continental championships for several consecutive years, the fans have a lot to cheer about, and buy. Although ahlawy 100 per cent is a medium sized shop, it has managed to group in one place the most important items that relate to the fans. As one of the owners, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Al-Ahram Weekly, people had been thinking about the idea of establishing a fan store for years, however, with a group of business partners, they finally decided to launch the project. "In Europe, it's normal for clubs, players and fans to have a special relationship, to express their affection for their football team," she said. "We know that every time Ahli fans go to the stadium, they want to wear the team's red T- shirts, and since football fans are crazy, we knew the idea was going to be great." She explained how in their opinion the available T-shirts were not as good as many fans would want "and did not look nice. So we worked on the idea of making high quality products in general." They also aimed at personalising the products, which are mostly locally made, although it is apparently clear that LE120 T-shirts, LE25 mugs and LE25 notebooks are addressed to the better off fans. Eventually the shop, ironically established in a neighborhood called Zamalek, Ahli's arch rival, became known through word of mouth and Face Book. Says Khaled Mohamed, who works at the store, "Some fans think that the products are a bit expensive, but many choose to buy anyway for the love of their club and the players." After two months in the market, it appears that the T-shirt of Ahli's sweetheart striker Mohamed Abou-Treika is the best seller, followed by those of defender Wa'el Gomaa and former club president and legendary player Saleh Selim, named "The Godfather" on the shirts. "We started with a certain number of players, and we believe that they have been our lucky totem, so maybe we will expand more in the future," said the partner. Using Ahli players in advertising raises questions about copyright laws, but as the partner emphasised, they do not use the logo of the club on any of their products. "We received the approval of certain players to use their names, photos and signatures on our products, and the name of the store has to do with the fans." While the store attracts female and male fans, Mohamed says Zamalek fans also seem interested in checking out the products, especially after discovering that some T-shirts are meant to tease, if not downright incite. Ahli's famous 6-1 demolishing of Zamalek in the league a few years back has found its way on the store's T-shirts. As Salah Zulfiqar, a Zamalek fan, put it, "Ahli fans know that now is their prime time, so they are using it to the maximum. We have to admit it is a great business idea, because Ahli is not going to get better than now by any means." Although he admired the idea, the fact that Zamalek's stinging defeat had become the butt of jokes on mugs and T- shirts, has visibly upset Zulfiqar. He saw the latest pun on one of the products, that with 80 million Egyptians, 50 million are Ahli fans and the rest are on the waiting list. For a serious fan like him, that was simply "infuriating". However, Zulfiqar said he thought it was not the right time for Zamalek fans to work on a similar fan store. "The past three years have been the lowest for Zamalek. I even stopped going to the stadium to watch them. So basically we will have to wait for the club to get back on track." But for the female partner, she believes that if Zamalek fans like the store, then maybe they should start one of their own. "Good luck to them," she giggled.
